Raspberry Cremes

Valentine's Day is not really something the fiancé and I make a big thing of.  It's pretty much a normal day for the two of us, except that we make each other an edible present.  The last few years the fiancé has been trying to make me fudge because I love fudge.  He's not quite perfected it yet but he is determined to.  The fact that I now own a sugar thermometer did help in this year's attempt.  Definitely his best batch yet.  Me, on the other hand, I vary it up each year.  The first year I tried to make chilli chocolate.  I put far too much chilli powder in without realising, since whenever I tasted it, I didn't feel any heat.  But he liked them regardless.  I've also made him oatcakes and little tiny chocolate covered cakes in previous years.  This year though, I found two things that I couldn't choose between and so decided to do both.  The first of those is raspberry cremes.

Now this came from looking at a recipe for peppermint cremes on the Carnation website.  I thought it would be an easy enough idea to adapt into a raspberry creme.  I've had success flavouring fondant with raspberry jam so figured I could do the same here.  Originally I just planned to cover them in milk chocolate but a few days beforehand, I had an idea!  The fiancé and I are big fans of Pokémon and within the Pokémon universe, there is one called Luvdisc, which look like heart shaped fish.  The entry for the pokédex for this Pokémon reads:
"It is said that a couple finding this Pokémon will be blessed with eternal love."
So I figured I could go extra geeky on this present and decorate the cremes to look like Luvdisc.  So I swapped the milk chocolate out for white chocolate (which was probably a better idea anyway since white chocolate goes much better with raspberry) which I then tinted with blossom tint, and used a little writing icing to finish them off.  The overall look was actually quite effective.

The fiancé really likes them.  He says they are really, REALLY sweet, with nice creamy chocolate and lovely raspberry tang coming through.  There was visible trembling of pleasure too.

Recipe - adapted from Carnation
Makes about 24

• 255g/9oz icing sugar, plus extra for dusting
• 115g/4oz Carnation Condensed Milk
• Pink food colouring
• 4 tbsp seedless raspberry jam
• 150g/5.3oz white chocolate
• Dusty pink blossom tint 
• Pink and brown writing icing (optional)

1. Heat the jam in a small saucepan over a gentle heat until liquefied.
2. Put the condensed milk in a bowl and gradually sift in the icing sugar, stirring as you do so.
3. Add the jam and food colouring and knead gently.  If the dough is too sticky, add more icing sugar.
4. Roll out on a surface lightly dusted with icing sugar to about 5mm/0.25inch thick. 
5. Use a 6.5cm/2.5inch heart shaped cutter to cut out the cremes and set them on a tray or wire rack.  Leave to dry in a cool place for about 2-3 hours.
6. Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of barely simmering water and then tint with the blossom powder to turn it pink.
7. Prepare a tray by covering it in greaseproof paper.
8. Use a fork to dip the top side of each creme in the chocolate and then place chocolate side up on the tray to set.
9. (Optional) When all cremes have set, use the writing icing to draw an eye, cheek and lips on each so they resemble Luvdisc.